


Necessary for Living

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M, Post-Movie, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23245675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "This OP would like to see Pitch learning how to use fear correctly.There’s been quite a lot of talk about how fear is still useful and needed, and about how too much fear is bad, etc etc. I want to see Pitch on a journey of sorts (metaphorical or not), learning by trial and error how to use his powers properly, showing the consequences of having too much or too little fear and him finding the right balance.Can be pre-movie or post-movie, all pairings (or none) are welcome.Bonus points:-> If post-movie, have this as Pitch’s rite of passage into becoming a guardian ( this comic (( http://dreamworksanimation.tumblr.com/post/36154027636/travel-back-in-time-pitch-meets-the )) has me wondering what would’ve happened if Pitch accepted instead).-> If pre-movie, show how Pitch, after finding that balance, ends up becoming the Pitch that we all know and (possibly) love in the movie."Post-movie, Pitch has just been moping around making monsters that he doesn’t let out into the world. Sandy gets fed up with waiting for him to get a clue and goes to have a talk with him.
Relationships: Pitch Black/Sanderson Mansnoozie
Kudos: 11
Collections: Blacksand Short Fics





	Necessary for Living

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 3/13/2015.

Pitch considered the nightmaresand form before him. The teeth and claws were good, but lots of things had teeth and claws. Something so much like a wolf would be fine, if he had to make a lot of them all at once, but that wasn’t the case. He had time now and, well…  
  
He looked up to the place in the ceiling where the main entrance to his lair had been. It was still completely solid, and likely to remain so. A new physical entrance would form, because one always did, but he couldn’t sense it yet and didn’t feel like looking for it. What could he do if he left the lair, anyway? The Guardians would no doubt be on high alert for decades.  
  
So, time and some leftover nightmaresand–more than he had suspected, thankfully–were what he had, and that meant the creature in front of him didn’t need to be simple.  
  
He lengthened its limbs, adding two more joints in each. After a moment or two of thought, he lengthened its body as well, and added two more legs on each side, bringing the total to eight. He nodded to himself. Wolves had become more ambiguous in recent decades as human populations became more urban and real wolves grew endangered. Anything that shared characteristics with a spider, though, that was perennial, though few spiders deserved such a reaction. He was ever-grateful for it, though. Perhaps he should encourage a refuge for spiders near the new physical entrance whenever he found it. That might be nice. He considered it as he added several more eyes at random to the head of the creature. Maybe they could be persuaded to give him enough silk for a real, physical robe. And if he gathered endangered species, Bunny at least would feel truly awful if he ever decided to barge in with his boomerangs and bad attitude.  
  
But the time for that was still distant. Lost in concentration, he continued to work on the creature’s form, making its fur prickly and unpleasant to the touch, changing the paws on the four central legs to be more like hands, making it move about the chamber so he could make corrections to its apparent joints. As time passed, he grew more and more pleased with it–it was a very fine monster, one that was sure to induce at least some fear into most human minds–but when he caught a general glow out of the corner of his eye, all that pleasure faded, to be replaced by his own fear.  
  
“I wasn’t going to let it out!” He jumped in front of the monster as Sandy stepped into view. “I swear I wasn’t! I’ll destroy it, will that prove–” He reached up his hand to pull the creature apart, but before he could, Sandy held up one small hand.  
  
 _Wait._  
  
“Why? You’ve seen it, you know the extent–”  
  
Sandy walked forward, stopping just far enough away from Pitch that he didn’t have to crane his neck too far to look at his face. _I know you’re not going to let it out. You haven’t let anything else out. I’m here to see why._  
  
Pitch’s lip curled. “Are you surprised I’ve managed to learn my lesson for longer than a day? I know what you Guardians would do if I or any of my creations went out into the world right now.”  
  
 _Do you? Not surprised you’ve learned your lesson. Surprised you haven’t._  
  
“What!” Pitch stopped thinking about the creature, and it scuttled off into the shadows of one of the larger passages leading from the main chamber. “What more could I have to learn? I’ve learned that there’s no place for me, that I can’t exist in the same world with wonder, hope, memories, dreams, and joy! I’ve learned there’s nothing good I can do! I’ve learned that I’m useless, and that the only one who cares whether I’m around or not is me!”  
  
Sandy folded his arms and tapped his foot. _Where do you think all the nightmaresand you’ve been using to make monsters has been coming from?_  
  
“I–what?”  
  
Sandy rolled his eyes. _It’s a lot more than made up the nightmares that pulled you down here, didn’t you notice?_  
  
“You mean–that is, when I summoned it for new creatures I always thought the old ones were being taken apart. Does that mean they’re all still around? There are a lot of changes I want to make to some of the early ones–wait. You. All the new nightmaresand must be corrupted dreamsand. From you.” Pitch frowned, and stood in silence for a long moment before sitting down cross-legged on the floor. “Why? Is it so that you can make all of the creatures turn on me at some time? There are enough to tear me apart and have been for a while. Prolonging the process isn’t becoming.”  
  
 _Do you really think I would want to do that?_  
  
“I shot you in the back, so, yes.”  
  
 _But I’m better now._ Sandy clasped his hands in front of him and paced a few steps back and forth. _The conclusion I was hoping you would reach was that you shouldn’t try to kill the Guardians and become the only force in the world._  
  
“What’s the difference between that and my conclusion?”  
  
Sandy raised his hands in exasperation. _That conclusion has nothing about your worthlessness and the impossibility of co-existence with us in it!_  
  
“The practical result is the same,” Pitch said peevishly.  
  
Sandy shook his head. _Your conclusion leads to you shut yourself up in a hole with a bunch of monsters no one else sees._  
  
“And not bothering anyone! What is your point?”  
  
 _Have you ever tried to be believed in without attacking the Guardians?_  
  
“I–surely I must have.”  
  
Sandy shook his head again.  
  
“Well–um–that doesn’t matter! I would still need to destroy you, because otherwise you wouldn’t allow me to exist.”  
  
A flurry of question marks appeared above Sandy’s head.  
  
Pitch laughed bitterly. “Maybe you don’t know. Well, you Guardians all have the charge of something absolutely necessary…and good, too. But me…I could argue that fear is necessary for survival, and maybe you’d believe it. But that kind of fear goes on without me, and it’s barely enough to keep me alive. What I have to offer is terror of things that never were and never could be and that’s…that’s just horrible, isn’t it? And not even useful. You Guardians couldn’t let me go on like that.”  
  
 _Not unless you had more of a clue._ Sandy sighed silently. _And you’d probably have to be a Guardian yourself._  
  
“Sandy, don’t make cruel jokes. You’ve already reminded me of everything I wanted to forget.”  
  
Sandy glowered. _I don’t make jokes like that. You watch, Pitch, and you watch close. You think Guardians are necessary because of our centers? People could remember things without Tooth. They could wonder without North. They could hope without Bunny and they could dream without me. They had fun before Jack. We couldn’t exist if those things didn’t exist outside of us. What’s important about us is that we heighten all of those things, we tell children that those things are important, that we try to make sure that the raw vividness of childhood is opened to its full potential and never truly lost. We’re not necessary for survival. We’re necessary for_ living.  
  
Pitch stared at him. “So you mean that me…my monsters…no, I won’t believe it unless you say it. This might be a trick.”  
  
 _I’m more mad about talking so much than about being shot, you ass,_ Sandy signed, but went on. _Fear is part of experience like everything else. You should be able to imagine a world with both dreams and nightmares. You should be able to see how a child watching your monsters stalk just-visible through the woods fits with a world of wonder and vivid memories. Can you see that? Or are you really awful, only caring about destroying the Guardians and wallowing in your own misery?_  
  
“No! I–I can see that world. Why…why didn’t you tell me before?”  
  
 _We thought you did understand it when we weren’t actively fighting and that when you tried to kill us it was just you being an asshole. Jack’s helped us understand the stress of non-corporeality more._  
  
“Oh. Well, how was I supposed to understand that when the Guardians were created specifically to drive me back?”  
  
 _Possibly because I assumed you were less preoccupied with yourself as an individual._ Sandy looked a bit sheepish. _But that was probably because of the conversations we had when we first met, when language and individuality weren’t really things._  
  
“What a mess,” Pitch said and rubbed his temples. “All right, just one more question. Why, not knowing for sure what was going on, were you still providing me with sand? Why are you the one who took the risk of coming down and talking to me?”  
  
 _I’m done explaining things to the clueless today,_ Sandy signed. _But you can follow me and find out where the new entrance to your lair is, if you want._  
  
“I…yes, I do want that.”  
  
Sandy smiled, but offered no further signs.


End file.
